Pilgrimage from Cojutepeque

February 5, 2008

Wowzers, yesterday I completed my first ‘official’ pilgrimage in name and it was it pretty cool I must say. But I guess a little background is in order. To start off, as many know the Church calendar, the liturgical year, squeezes Jesus’ life into one year. The Church lives his life with him during through the year, as it does in an abbreviated version every Sunday. Beginning with Advent in December, the colors, symbols, and readings in the Church change to show and demonstrate the pilgrim path of the Body with its Head during the year. Well, here in El Salvador, after the birth of Christ and that celebration in the Christmas season, there falls the pilgrimage in honor of the “Dulce Nombre de Jesus” (the sweet name of Jesus). On February 4 every year (from what I hear) closing the patron festivals of the town, kid Jesus (it looks like a large dressed up doll haha) is brought by pilgrims from a department up north to a southern capital of Cojutepeque. Then from there, it is brought to San Pedro Nonualco. The Presentation of Jesus is read in the church at the end of the trek and the festivals, leading into the opening of Lent, and in the Liturgy the ministry of Jesus (specifically the revelation of himself) beginning on the 6th with Ash Wednesday.

So there is the background….haha. I got up at 1:45am yesterday morning so that I would have time to make it to San Pedro by 3 to leave. But of course I arrived at the absolutely perfect time. The buses that left somewhat closer to where I enter the town, left 10 mins early…..this NEVER happens in El Salvador, they are 30 mins to an hour late for everything, except Mass. The only reason I can think of that is because these two buses were hired by the ex-mayor, who wants to be the NexT mayor, in the upcoming elections, and wanted to get their before the bus leaving from the Mayor’s office. Whatever. Anyways, I just missed those buses, so I walked to the Mayors office, right at 3….no bus. HA, it came about 45 mins later….its actually kind of cold in shorts and tshirt at that time of the morning here. We arrived in Cojute around 445am and then after waiting around there in the cold for a while, everything started and we left on foot at 530am. At this point, when kid Jesus arrived (hah), there was an old guy carrying him and another guy with a big ole wooden case on his back, and some ladies and kids that accompanied them with candles……AND after the third picture my batteries died. Oops. I realized about 2 hours later that I had a flashlight that I could switch the batteries out of, so I took pictures later. It was neat though in the beginning because people were coming out of their houses to offer alms as we passed, and I basically just followed the candles and little 4 man band that followed them playing some decent music. It was 2 violins, a little guitar/banjo, and a bass kind of thing. I was impressed that they were there the entire climb.

The band at 5am.

Our first uphill climb later when I realized I could switch the batteries of my flashlight with those of my camera


About 3 hours into it, they all stopped to pray at a site where we met up with some more people. We started with about 250 people I think. I guessed that from counting a certain group in the front…seeing the space they occupied, and then seeing how many of those sized groups there were overall. Who knows haha. At this point, I ran into my Peace Corps boss, Rolando, who was tagging along as well. I took advantage of the quick rest to get a snack out of my bag. I brought along Daddy’s hiking bag, and had a few jugs of water, some bread I had bought the day before, sunflower seeds, and a pack of nabs that Mother had sent a few months ago (oh and some Victorian oranges). After that crazy climb of the dormant volcano during training, I figured that would be about right, but I really didn’t know what to expect.




Ha. Crossing the Tiber.


Another crossing.


Me in front of a little waterfall on the way.


We were going downhill for about the first 4 hours I’d say, and then we made it to a river and had to criss cross it for a few miles. This was actually pretty funny because hundreds of people were trying to cross the river where you have to take off your shoes and socks to get across because it was deeper, but a bunch of us found ways around the borders without having to do that. Less fun, but later on we had to do some rock jumping, so that was made up for not unnecessarily fording rivers. We passed a waterfall, ate on a little island an orange, watched a kid in a speedo climb it and almost kill himself on the way down, and then we continued. Eventually, we made it to the base of Maria Ostuma, the municipality that is above San Pedro Nonualco. We then began a pretty steep climb for some 3 hours up the ridge to make it to Ostuma.



After we climbed out of the valley from the river

I think this was actually in the riverbank.


At this point, we stopped at the end of the first steep part to check out a ‘molinera’ where they squeeze the juice out of the sugar cane and make sugar…..stuff. That was cool, I tasted the foam on top and it was neat, but it wasn’t super sweet yet, so I had to act like I really liked it because everyone else was going bonkers about it haha. It was cool to see how they were making it though. They had a machine to grind and squeeze it, then a pipe running it to four large semicircular shaped holders that had an oven under each one to keep it boiling, with the foam rising to the top. Then eventually they would pour it into holders to cool and either make candies or sent to the places that make rum. Wahoo.

The machine that squeezes all the good stuff out of the sugar cane.

The vats of liquid sugar mmmmmmmm.

There, I met the father-in-law of a previous volunteer about 4 years ago that married his daughter, I think they live in Pennsylvania now or something. So he was my guide for the next few hours, because I still had no idea where we were going. It was good conversation, he asked eventually about my religion, and we talked a bit. We talked about American culture and Salvadoran culture…he had visited the States quite a bit and mentioned how that we are so much more individualistic in the States. I laughed because I had already had this discussion with quite a few people. It’s a common distinction. As to why…. Maybe in another post.

Climbing down another hillside.

Later on approaching a small town on the outskirts of San Pedro Nonualco

Us awaiting the old people in the back with Jesus :)

We reached Ostuma and piled in the Church where the priest in a polo and jeans gave a quick speech on the importance of continuing these types of traditions, quoted similar mentalities from the recent council of Bishops of Latin America and then we pushed on to the finish line. That last part was one of the hardest parts, really, really steep, whew, but it’s all good. Eventually we made it to the outskirts of the town and ran up on another few hundred waiting for us, clapping, praying, yadda yadda, then a presentation by some guys dressed up as four Christian kings and 4 pagan kings. Not sure where that came from, but oh well. They did have swords though and were going at it; that was cool.

The people leaving the church in Santa Maria Ostuma

Coming into the outskirts of a neighborhood of San Pedro. It looks the sign says "Welcome honored pilgrims that visit us...May the sweet name of Jesus bless you... Our Lord Jesus Christ, the town of San Pedro, and the Mayor welcomes you with open arms"

The rally in the neighborhood.

This caught my eye in the photos so I blew it up, they had the welcoming of the pilgrims right below this Seventh Day Adventist building it looks like. They like to come and plant little churches all over the country, I never new this one was here til the photo.

Finally, we preceded from there with the Mayor and Padre Tino (whom I’m having bfast with Friday) at the front, with two bands, and the kid Jesus, through some of the streets of San Pedro and then finally ended at the church with a reading from the Gospel. I had the best spot because I was behind a crazy person doing karate to the beat of the 4 man band I was behind. He was hilarious (or hysterectal as Ms. Sandra calls it)…I took a short video, but I’m not sure yet if it came out. There are three types of crazies here: mental crazies, drunk crazies, and religious crazies….with mixtures all in between. I think this one was a drunk/religious crazy. My favs are the mental ones though, they are the easiest to deal with.




Us on the main street of San Pedro heading toward the Church after having gone through the neighborhoods. The crazy guy dancing is on the right.

Ending the “caminata” as they call it, I left the church and got some of their special French fries during the festivals, two actually, one for me and one for Alex, at the place where I do internet.
It was a good time, I met some good people, and well it was a good, tough experience. I have to say though, that I was amazed at the people. Both the quantity and the moms that did what I had a tough time doing, carrying one child, and with another one tagging along. That was crazy to me. The quantity was just fun to watch, whether they were crossing a little river, climbing the side of a mountain, piling in and out of churches, or piling through the streets expressing confidence in the Faith. Especially on a work day. Cool beans.


This quote from an article on Hilary Clinton made me laugh, it was from a "fan" in the audience.

"Iron my shirt!"

February 6, 2008

And it begins. The most powerful 40 some days of the year for the Christian. Wahoo Ash Wednesday (Miércoles de Ceniza). A nice 6 am Mass again this morning, thanks to my host fam, dirty dirty people…. Hahahahahaha. Joke….naaa we weren’t sure if the bus was going to make it up later so we got on the 5am bus to the town. It was fun, lots of people, lots of Spanish, lots of ashes. I got a kick out of part of the homily where the priest responded to accusations to him by ….non-Catholics as to Lent not being in the Bible. Would anyone like to comment on that? :)…of course I have no opinion.

“Acuérdate de que eres polvo y al polvo volverás.” (cf. Genesis 3:19)

Remember that you are dust and to the dust you will return.